To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department has considered research conducted by the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries on estimated and actual prescription costs for the elderly; and if he will make a statement.

We have received a copy of the ABPI briefing pamphlet "Trends in usage of prescription medicines by the elderly and the very elderly between 1977 and 1988". We agree with the general conclusion that the need for prescription medicines increases with aging population and progressively more so at the extreme end of the age spectrum. This will be reflected in the setting of indicative prescribing amounts for practices under the indicative prescribing scheme set out in "Improving Prescribing".